Chapter 1
iFightCrimeWithVictorious In recent days, a seemingly random group of friends and inonculus family members have emerged with what can only be tenatively described as "super powers". Although unaware of it now, these individuals will not only save the world, but also change it forever. This transformation from ordinary to extraordinary will not occur overnight. Every story has a beginning. Expectations There was no other choice, they had to stop doing the webshow until they could figure things out. Figure out what to say to their parents, if they said anything at all. Spencer Shay was probably open-minded enough that he wouldn't faint, and silly enough that he might be able to take what they were saying seriously. Ms. Benson was definitely out of the equation, and Sam restrained her hand before she hit Freddy for even coming up with a such a dumb idea. Sam had already told her mom last week when the powers first came out during their live webcast. Since Ms. Puckett hadn't thrown her daughter into a mental hospital, or more likely juvie was the best possible outcome, they decided to talk to Spencer. The three junior, though mentally mature, web celebrities brought Spencer into the Shay living room and asked him to sit down before they started their explanation, and then showing their powers as proof. "...wait, you guys are telling me that you all gained superpowers and hid them for an entire week?" Spencer's usual "I think I'm being punked" face was on. Carly saw it, and nodded with guilty cheeks along with her friends. "It was while we were shooting ICarly last week. Sam and I were doing our Sugar & Coffee bit when all a sudden this, this strange power just hit us." Carly tried to explain, turning the explanation over to Freddy. "We lost video feed for a whole minute before reconnecting and... we all entered some kind of induced trance where we could see each other but... it was like we weren't really there." "And when we woke up," Sam interrupted, grabbing a pen off the living room table for emphasis. Holding the two ends of the pen between her thumb and pinky, Sam casually crushed the pen and allowed the ink to explode, covering her hand in black ink, and Spencer's eyes puffed open with shock. "I nearly killed Freddy with a soda can!" While he was used to Sam's abuse, even more than he cared to admit, Freddy clutched his spine at the discomforting memory, "Which really hurt by the way! I would probably be in the hospital if my power didn't activate at the same time!" As Sam rolled her eyes, Carly said, "And when I woke up, I could hear things from, like, really far away! Farther than I should be able to hear things, and when I concentrated, they got quieter! I could barely control it at first, and that's why we've been rushing back and forth this week, trying to control these powers! I think I can read minds, everyone's except Freddy and Sam's!" The older Shay blinked rapidly, and the third time he got up from his seat and studied Sam's ink-covered hand and wrist. Sam had really just crushed a pen in between her fingertips. But that wasn't really a surprise for Sam, she used to throw fully-grown men, security guards, and Japanese martial arts twins to the ground without breaking a sweat. He would have been more blown away if Carly had done it, but even if she had, super strength was a ridiculous excuse for squishing a bad pen. "You don't believe us, do you?" Carly ratted her brother out using his thoughts, earning a very spooked look from Spencer. "You think that if I crushed that pen, it'd be more convincing!" "We don't have time for this chiz!" Sam moaned, impatient as ever. Spencer shook his head and his hands in front of his chest. He was still far-from convinced, just as Carly announced. "Come on guys, even for a prank this is kind of pathetic. You guys have done way better than this, like that big-lipped alligator I found in the shower and will never speak of again." Carly remembered the big-lipped alligator incident and how they swore to never speak of it again. Obviously they had just broken that one rule, so while Carly and her brother awkwardly paused to reflect on Spencer's mistake, Sam kept talking to Spencer about her power. "Dude, we're not lying! I just crushed a pen without even trying! Look, I could break Freddy's wrist!" Everyone gazed at Sam, and a horrified Freddy took a couple of steps back. "But I thought... you could already do... that?" Spencer said with genuine confusion. Sam leaned her eyes to the side understandingly, and Freddy did the same because he was fully aware that Carly had pinned him to the floor once when they were younger. Trying to convince Spencer about their powers required more than a little mind-reading or pen-crushing, so Sam turned around and headed to the front door of the Shay apartment. "Okay, you don't believe me?" Sam said with a bit of energy, smirking at Spencer and Carly, "Check this out!" and she grabbed the door by its hinges. There was no disappointment when Sam deliberately, and quite easily, ripped their door from its doorway, pulling off one of the hinges while the other remained. Spencer gawked at Sam while she hefted the door above her, like Supergirl lifting a car above her head to try and scare off burglars. But while the older Shay stood in awe of the blonde superhuman girl's ability, Carly moved next to Sam and tried to gauge her brother's reaction. Hopefully it wouldn't dawn on him that Sam had just cost them hundreds of dollars in door repair and that apartment inspection was scheduled in three days. Freddy asked Spencer if he believed them now. Of course, Carly was already smiling because she knew that Spencer's mind was blown away by this discovery, and he was handling it better than any of them had last week. They were in the middle of the show when it happened and were talking about an unusual meteor shower that was supposedly coming down that night in Seattle; Spencer was just making a snack and getting ready to watch Celebrities Underwater when they approached him and asked for an audience. "Th-this is unbelievable!? Oh my god, that's awesome!" Spencer rattled off with praising comments, "S-s-Sam you j-just lifted... and crushed the pen... and ripped the door!" "I know! I know!" said Sam. "So now you understand." Carly opened her palms and gazed deeply into Spencer's new, enlightened eyes. "...do you have any idea what this means?" Another pause let the three of them mull over what Spencer would say. At first, when they discovered their new powers, Sam was excited and wanted to beat up a bunch of girls she didn't like from her beauty pageant years. Carly had to talk her out of it with half a dozen Fat Cakes and grape soda, and once Sam's head was back on, they had to start thinking about what these powers meant to them. Super strength fit Sam very well; Freddy called her an "impulsive person" and Sam broke his thumb with her pinky finger. Carly meanwhile was a very emphatic person, and she didn't take well to her friends keeping secrets from her. With "telepathy", as Freddy called it, there wouldn't be anymore trust issues. Spencer finally answered, but he asked Freddy a question first, "So Carly can read minds, right? And Sam is super-strong. So what's your power?" Benson looked uncomfortable, "Well I..." and Sam smiled behind him. "Awww Freddy," Spencer sighed, "You didn't get any powers?" "That's not..." "Its okay man. I don't have any powers either. Think about it this way, Batman and Robin didn't have powers either." "No Spencer, you don't-" Freddy tried to explain when Sam grabbed his shoulder and gripped the bottom of the door she was holding with one hand, raising it above Freddy's head like a fly swatter. "Fredward, Fredward, Fredward. Let me make this simple." said Sam, her smile so wide and shark-like that her power could have made her part-shark without anyone being the wiser. She gestured at Spencer, "Observe." "No, no Sam! Don't!" pleaded Freddy when it was already too late. Sam slammed the door over Freddy's head without any regard for his well-being. Spencer and Carly were frightened when Freddy's head emerged from the other side of the door, forced through the surface thanks to Sam's berserk action. Wood splinters were lodged inside of his throat and cheeks, and when his eyes opened, to the horror of both Shay siblings, he was still very conscious from the impact. "SAM!" Carly and Spencer screamed. "Come on Carls, you've seen what happens when I hurt him now!" Sam stated like she had given him a slap on the head. With a considerable amount of pain, Freddy pushed the broken door off his shoulders and dropped it on the floor, not being strong enough to hold it up the way same had. Carly ran to him and tried to help him, but Freddy told her he was alright and tried to stop her from touching him. The last thing Carly needed was his blood on her hands, literally, and with his ability he could fix himself regardless. He started to pull out the wood splinters from his face and used his shirt to rub some of the blood off his face. Spencer went to grab some paper towels, soap, and a first-aid kit. By the time he made it back, Freddy had removed most of the splinters and Carly was freely searching him for other injuries. Sam anxiously munched on a warm FatCake that was sitting in her pocket. "This is..." Spencer said with his lips agape, unable to finish his sentence. Freddy stopped Carly from cleaning his forehead again, looking at Spencer, then glaring at Sam. "We figured out that my body has some kind of adapt power. Miss PUCKETT," he said with anger, "-helped us figure that out in the beginning after she almost killed me." "Come on, throwing you down a flight of stairs is something I would do normally!" Sam made her case, spewing half-chewed FatCake from her mouth. Freddy shrugged, bitter over how Sam kept using her power to harm him in ways she never would have gotten away with if couldn't heal from it so quickly. Carly cleared the last few wood chunks from his hair and went to wash her hands in the sink, and Spencer fell back into a chair, awestruck. Freddy continued on about his power, "Anyway, whenever I get hurt by something, my body learns how to fix itself and I heal shortly after. But its not just that, I think I can learn anything just by studying it closely for a bit. I memorized almost three-fourths of my French textbook the other day, and one time when I was cutting vegetables for my mom, I cut my finger, but I didn't show my mom and let her treat it. When I looked at the cut for a minute, it started closing up and the pain went away, slowly, but after awhile there wasn't even a scar! Not only that, but I've been looking at kids at school and realizing things about them, like the kind of clothes they like to wear even though I don't know who they are." "Its like you're Sherlock Holmes or something!" Spencer exclaimed. "There's something else though..." Freddy grunted, pulling a splinter he hadn't seen earlier from his shoulder. He didn't say anything for a few seconds, trying to find the right words. Sam pushed Freddy with one hand, and apparently she had more control than Spencer believed because it was a normal shove and didn't send the poor boy flying into a wall. "Quit beating around the bush Benson. Tell him about his power so we can start figuring out secret identities!" Alarmed, Spencer stared at Sam. "Wait... my power?"